What do the Jedi Knights of Star Wars and real-life storytellers have in common? And how can a country as divided as ours agree on, well, anything? This week’s guests on Everywhere Radio have some answers and ideas.
Kiran Singh Sirah, the president of the International Storytelling Center, and Harry Gottlieb, the founder of Jackbox Games and Unify America, joined host Whitney Kimball Coe this week to talk about the radical gift of storytelling. From the Appalachian tradition of porch-sitting to the newer practice of using video calls to connect with strangers around the country, storytelling shapes our understanding of ourselves, our relationship with others, and our place in the world.
Kiran compares telling stories with using the Force because stories are powerful tools that can be used for good or evil. On a global scale, he explained, stories are used to shape identities and forge nations, but also to create propaganda and sew division.
But as a Jedi Master of storytelling, Kiran can’t help but think that telling stories is inherently good. “It’s one of the most sacred, core aspects of our humanity,” he said. “We all want our story to be received, to be heard, to be understood, to be appreciated … There’s something great in all of us, the story of us.”
Sharing our individual stories, whether with friends, family, total strangers, and even people we don’t like — or think we don’t like — builds understanding, empathy, and connection with others. This vital connection, Kiran said, ties people and groups together, and is the basis for the political, cultural, and social movements that transform our communities.
That’s what Harry Gottlieb, the founder of Jackbox Games and Unify America, is betting on. He is hoping to use this connection to help change America from a country of politics to a country of problem-solvers. And using the force of storytelling is at the center of his strategy.
“One of the things we need to do first is reduce contempt in this country,” Harry said. “We’ve got this idea about ‘those people’ that we don’t really know personally. But in general, we sort of condemn giant swaths of the population.”
That is why Unify America created the Unify Challenge, in which people from opposing ends of the political spectrum work together to complete a survey about the vision they have for the future of the country. The exercise helps its participants to understand their political opposites as fellow citizens instead of adversaries. In addition to building personal connections with people with whom we disagree, Harry says the goal of the challenge is to point out all the things that Americans do agree on.
“We have paired hardcore Donald Trump fans with hardcore Bernie Sanders fans, and they are surprised by how much they agree on what America’s goals should be,” Harry said. “When it comes to the most important thing, which is ‘where do we want to end up?’ we are deeply unified.”
You can hear these stories and more in the latest episode of Everywhere Radio, a podcast produced by the Rural Assembly in partnership with the Daily Yonder. Every other Thursday, host Whitney Kimball Coe welcomes new guests to talk about the good, scrappy ways people are practicing leadership in rural communities across the country.
You can find Everywhere Radio wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Start listening and subscribe today to never miss an episode. The latest is available below, along with a full transcript of the conversation.
